


Alive

by Clea2011



Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Episode Tag, Gen, S03E02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-18 18:27:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14857943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clea2011/pseuds/Clea2011
Summary: Leo wasn’t sure of anything any more.  Everything was different.  He was awake.  And for the first time he was properly alive.But Max was behaving as if Leo were dead to him.





	Alive

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for Season 3 if you haven't seen it yet.
> 
> This was written for hc bingo May challenge - small fandom. The related prompts are fighting and sensory deprivation. 
> 
> This hasn't been betaed - apologies for errors but the deadline is hours away...

Leo couldn’t remember any pain.

It must have been there because there was a new scar on his neck that was never going to go away.  The skin there had that faint shine of scar tissue.  It appeared dark and bruised, people would probably think that he had a permanent love bite or something.  As if anyone could love him, freak that he was.

Mattie had been there when he had woken.  He thought that perhaps he’d heard her voice while he was sleeping but he couldn’t be sure.  He wasn’t sure of anything any more.  Everything was different.  _He_ was different. 

There were aches deep inside him, his body protesting at the slightest movement.  And something was missing – the wires beneath his skin that had always pulled whenever he moved.  They had been a constant reminder of what he was.  It took him a while to realise they were gone.  He didn’t miss them.

Everything was an effort.  Mattie told him that he was stronger than he should be after his ordeal, but he didn’t feel it.  Having slept for so long, still all he wanted to do was rest.  Even talking was an effort.  He’d downed an entire bottle of water but his tongue still felt swollen inside his dry mouth. 

“How long?”

The answer that came was shocking.  He’d been asleep for a year, like some modern-day Rip Van Winkle.  Slept through one of the greatest changes that the world had ever known.

Leo had known nothing.

It felt as if Hester had been there only moments ago, holding him, her fingers pressing against his neck. 

That was the last thing he remembered.  She’d ripped out his memory chip and killed him, or at least killed the old Leo.  Now he was reborn.  No chip.  No wires.  _Human_.

It was new and strange and _terrifying_ and he wanted his family at his side to reassure him.  All of them.  _Any_ of them.

Mattie was still there, reassuringly familiar and kind.  That was nice.  _She_ was nice.  And there was Anatole, the new doctor synth whom he had never met before.  Also pleasant enough but Leo couldn’t really summon up the energy to be interested in him.  Mattie said that Niska had been the one to save him, his sister looking out for him like she always did no matter how hard she liked to cover it up.  He hadn’t seen her yet, but that wasn’t unusual.  Niska had always walked her own path.  She’d turn up when she wanted to.  And it was okay because Max and Mia would still be around for Leo.  Except they weren’t. 

“Where’s Max?” Leo asked again.  “I want to see him.”

Mattie’s expression darkened, just as it did whenever Max was mentioned.  Something was wrong.

“He’s busy.  He’s the leader here now.  I’m sure he’ll be along soon.”

Max didn’t come, and neither did Mia.

Hours passed, and still there was no sign.  Leo ate a little food and almost threw it back up after so long being fed on a drip.  Things weren’t right.  His left hand wasn’t opening properly.  There was so much damage no matter how well he was supposedly doing.

“Your digestive system will take time to adapt,” Anatole told him.   “Eat small amounts.  Plain food.”

Mattie fed him.  That should probably have been embarrassing, but he still felt too weak to care.  And it was good to have someone looking after him.  Mia had done that once.  And before her there had been his mother but those memories were faint, blurry.  It was so different to the way his mind had worked before.  That had felt sharp and efficient.  Now it was like trying to think through treacle.  He wanted Max.

It seemed to take forever but finally the door opened and there he was. 

“Maxie…”

But Max’s smile, which had always been almost warm enough to light up a room, was not there.  Maxie didn’t hug him, or lean close to touch foreheads like they always had in the past.  And when Max spoke it was with words that cut deep, letting Leo know that as a human now he was no longer part of the synth community. 

The meaning was clear - Max no longer considered them to be brothers.  It hurt, far more than anything else.  Max was the one that Leo had always been closest to.  Dear, sweet, kind Max.  Max, who could now barely look at him and was telling him coldly that he had to leave, that Mia and Niska had gone. 

And then Max was walking out through the door, closing it behind him, nothing more to say.  It was confusing, and it hurt worse than any physical pain.  Mattie was talking to Leo but he couldn’t take in what she was saying.  Max and Mia were the two most important souls in his life and it felt as if he’d lost them both.

“Did I do something that I can’t remember?  After Hester removed my chip?  Why’s he like this?  What did I do?”

Mattie shook her head.  “It’s not you.  The world’s changed.”

He still got the feeling that there was something she wasn’t telling him about Max. 

\---

Leo wasn’t ready to move.  After a year unconscious his muscles couldn’t support him for very long. 

It was Max who helped him, along with Mattie.  For a moment it felt like old times.  There had been so many occasions when Leo had needed to charge and Max had half-carried him in his weakened state.  That Max had always looked at him kindly, with love and affection.  This new Max could barely look at him.  It was Mattie that was looking at him with affection.  Max was stony-faced, cold.

Robotic.

Leo had never thought of his brother that way before, but it was true.

“Are you even going to tell me what’s wrong?” Leo asked.  “Are we fighting?”

“We’re different now.  You’re human.  It isn’t safe here.”

“I don’t want to be enemies, Maxie.”

Just for a moment Max looked at him and Leo thought he could see his brother.  Then the shutters came down over Max’s eyes again and the moment was gone.

“We are not enemies, Leo.  But you must leave here.  It is best if you do not talk, you should conserve your strength.”

It was the closest Max had ever come to telling him to shut up.  Leo shut up.  He let himself be half-dragged, half-carried to the gates.  Without protest he allowed himself to be hauled up into the back of the truck that was waiting there.  Already Max was walking away, back to Anatole’s side, turning his back on Leo.  Anatole seemed to have taken Leo’s place.  Whatever it was they were discussing was not for Leo’s ears.  Max was making that quite clear.

Perhaps they weren’t fighting, just as Max claimed.  But it felt as if they were. 

Max wasn’t even going to drive them himself.  There was another synth climbing into the driving seat and closing the door of the truck.  Max just regarded them grimly from a distance before finally coming over to the side of the truck to speak to Leo.  Max still looked so cold, so remote.

“Gordon will take you as close to a train station as he can safely go,” Max told them. 

“Max?” Leo attempted, holding up his good hand and reaching out to his brother.  It was a huge effort, he was horribly weakened by the trip to the gates.  He wanted to pull himself up and hold his beloved sibling close.  But all he could offer was a barely-raised, slightly trembling hand.  It was a tremendous effort even to do that.  “Maxie?”

For a long moment Max stared at the offered hand.  And then he reached out not for Leo but for the side of the truck.  The fellow machine.

“Seal the gates!” Max ordered as the truck started up.  “Nobody enters.  Nobody leaves.” 

Mattie reached out and squeezed Leo’s hand sympathetically.  But all he could see was his brother striding away from him and not looking back. 

“He says he’s trying to protect us,” she whispered comfortingly.  “I’m sure you’ll see him again.”

Leo didn’t answer.  He wanted to believe it, but he had a feeling that the latter part might not be true.  He sat there watching Max as they drove away.  His brother got smaller, fading into the distance until there was nothing left of him to see.

Then there was just the dusty road with the sun dazzlingly low in the sky turning everything yellow.  And there was the shadow of the human world that he had left behind so many years ago now rising up to meet him.

He prayed that it wouldn’t swallow him whole.


End file.
